Rutherford: Judge was cruel to take my kids from me

Kelly Rutherford has branded a judge's decision to send her two children back to Monaco as the “most cruel act”.

The former Gossip Girl actress was told to hand her offspring over to their paternal grandmother by a New York judge on Tuesday, after she had refused to send them back to their father on August 6. A day after the decision was made, the 46-year-old cannot comprehend what has happened.

“It was the most cruel act against a child I have ever witnessed in my entire life and the fact that it happened to American children at the hands of an American judge, in a United States courtroom is just inconceivable,” she said in a statement according to ABC News. “Judge Ellen Gesmer effectively arrested my children, claiming she had authority under habeas corpus to take them into custody because of a foreign country's court order. Judge Gesmer seized my children and their U.S. passports, and forced them to leave the United States and reside in Monaco, a country where neither they nor I, nor even their father, has citizenship."

The actress has been in a bitter legal battle over her children, Hermes, eight and Helena, six, with ex-husband Daniel Giersch, who is German, ever since his US visa was revoked in 2012. The children currently reside in Monaco with their father while Kelly has them in the US over holidays and vacations. But following their latest summer stint in the States, Kelly refused to return them to Daniel. He then filed papers in New York County Supreme Court which led to Tuesday’s verdict.

In her lengthy statement, Kelly insisted the original custody agreement was supposed to be temporary while Daniel sorted out his visa issues. Three years on, she claims he is no further forward in resolving them, and her patience has ran out. She signed off by reiterating that she will never give up the fight to have her offspring back in their homeland.

“As for Judge Gesmer, she has to live with herself, and if she has a conscience, I suspect she will not sleep well, ever again," she added.